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Factory Complex

The Exploitation of Female Laborers in the South Korean Workplace

2015

1 hr 34 mins

Winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale, this powerful documentary exposes the nature of exploitation and acts as a lyrical ode to poor working women around the world. The film provides a rare insight into the ongoing...

Winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale, this powerful documentary exposes the nature of exploitation and acts as a lyrical ode to poor working women around the world. The film provides a rare insight into the ongoing struggle for rights, as hard-won changes are swallowed up by a rapidly modernizing society.

FACTORY COMPLEX paints the details of the grueling, dangerous, and often abusive and humiliating conditions under which some unskilled female laborers in South Korea worked in recent decades during the country's economic modernization, while invoking hierarchical and patriarchal social dynamics. Through the testimonies of these women, the film unravels deep conflicts from rigid class structures, a highly concentrated private sector, and examples of blatant sexism that have spanned across decades and reached beyond borders.

"The filmmaker relieves the visual monotony of the interviews by interspersing footage of numerous work environments, as well as poetic, sometimes surreal imagery including scenes set in nature and such provocative visuals as a young girl standing blindfolded on a garbage-strewn rooftop." - Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter